Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Okay I'm freaking out...

{YES}So its really starting to happen. Jarom who's been mostly interested in playing for the last year which has been fine (okay I've been a little worried the last few months, and was wondering when Love of Learning was going to kick in) is on fire and is starting to WANT to learn. I am starting to experience first hand what it looks like when a child learns because he WANTS to NOT because he is forced to.

{Today}So what did today look like in the Martineau home?

A little like this...

or this...playing with Ginger

or this...CRAZY!

::Morning::Jarom made us all pancakes, and then the kids wondered upstairs and spent a couple hours playing upstairs in our playroom. They stayed busy imagining and building things for a a super long time. AMAZING!

::10:30ish::They all got hungry and wondered down for a mid-morning snack. I tried to read a little of the book we are just getting started on A Swiftly Tilting Planet, which is book three in the Twinkle in Time series. But we got distracted with snacks and before I knew it I was cleaning up and all the kids were in the [school room] listening to Standin Tall (an awesome book/CD series about wonderful virtues like honesty, love, dependability, etc...). The two oldest listened to those until lunch time while the two little guys played around with the chalk board in the same room.

::12:30::After lunch got cleaned up I pulled out some resources I ordered a while back, but hadn't looked over yet. I spread them all out on the island and guess what...before long Jarom and Megan wondered in and started begging to do the cursive workbooks I got for them a year ago that I'd never opened.

::the next 4 hours::The two of them spent the next four hours practicing cursive. I got busy reading a book and would stop and help them when they asked, but they kept at it...it was incredible. I had to stop myself from trying to get them to stop. AMAZING!!! When they are doing something they are interested in you can hardly get them to stop. In fact we had to run somewhere in the car around 5 and Jarom insisted on bringing his cursive workbook with us, and Megan brought the Standin' Tall CDs and books to listen to in the car.

[simple works]So simple does work. I am far from perfect, but I am trying my best to create an environment that allows my children to be inspired to learn. I am so thankful that I am starting to see them really take control of their education because they are excited about learning!! AWESOME!!

Wow!! That sounds like the best!! It is so fun to see children truly love learning and become absorbed in it. You are a wonderful mother,sister-n-law and teacher. Oh and I'm sure you will be a wonderful Sunday School teacher as well. Love your little ones!! Enjoy every minute of the Journey!!